PolarFire Video Kit Setup Instructions

Introduction

These instructions describe how to setup, compile and run an example on the PolarFireVideo Kit with the MiV_RV32 Reference Design. The instructions are for Linux but similar steps can be followed on Windows using Cygwin.

PolarFire^® Video Kit Image

This is a picture of the PolarFire Video Kit:

Step 1: Board Connections

The following cables must be connected to the board for use with SmartHLS:

• Power cable (connects to 12V Power Supply Input).
• Mini-USB cable for serial communication to the board and embedded JTAG programmer. The same cable is used for both. Alternatively, you use the External FP6 programmer.
• Jumper J28 must be open to use the external programmer, or closed to use the embedded programmer.

Step 3: Install Host PC Applications

The following programs are required to be installed on the host PC to set up the PolarFire Video Kit:

• SmartHLS v2023.2 or newer.
• Libero v2023.2 or newer.
• SoftConsole v2021.3 or later.
• A serial communication terminal of your choosing. in this guide we will use tio.

Step 4: Write, compile and run a simple test program

During the test we will open the 3 terminals labeled below:

1. UART Terminal: We will use this to see the stdout from the program.
2. SmartHLS terminal: We will use this to run SmartHLS commands from the command line.
3. OpenOCD terminal: We will use this to launch OpenOCD manually.

Create a temporary directory, for example, test, and use your favorite text editor to write the following 4 files under this directory:

$> mkdir test
$> cd test

Create a simple_add.c file with the following content:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdint.h>

uint32_t hw_add(uint32_t a, uint32_t b) {
   #pragma HLS function top
   #pragma HLS interface default type(axi_target)
   return a + b;
}

int main() {
   uint32_t sum;
   uint32_t a = 2, b = 3;
   sum = hw_add(a, b);

   int error = (sum != a + b);
   printf("\n%s\n", error ? "FAIL" : "PASS");
   return error;
}

Create the Makefile with the following content:

NAME=simple_add
SRCS=$(NAME).c
LOCAL_CONFIG = -legup-config=config.tcl
LEVEL = $(SHLS_ROOT_DIR)/examples
include $(LEVEL)/Makefile.common

Create a config.tcl file:

source $env(SHLS_ROOT_DIR)/examples/legup.tcl
set_project PolarFire MPF300 MiV_SoC

Create a gdb.txt file with the following instructions for gdb to connect to OpenOCD, load the .elf binary into the MiV_RV32’s memory and run the code:

set $target_riscv = 1
set mem inaccessible-by-default off
set arch riscv:rv32
target extended-remote localhost:3333
load
run

Note that we used the SHLS_ROOT_DIR environment variable, it should point to where SmartHLS is installed. On the SmartHLS Terminal type the following:

$> export SHLS_ROOT_DIR=/path/to/Microchip/SmartHLS_2023.2/SmartHLS

Now run the SmartHLS SoC flow to:

1. Compile the hw_add function into a Verilog module
2. Integrate the module into the MiV_RV32 Reference Design. See MiV_RV32 Reference Design
3. Run RTL synthesis
4. Run place and route
5. Check timing
6. Program the FPGA

The command below will invoke all these tasks as they are dependencies to program the FPGA. This will take a few minutes:

$> shls -a soc_accel_proj_program

Now cross-compile the simple_add.c program. This will generate a hls_output/simple_add.elf file.

$> shls soc_sw_compile_accel

In the UART terminal open the UART connection. Your device may be different:

$> tio /dev/ttyUSB0 -b 115200

In the OpenOCD terminal launch OpenOCD.

$> openocd -f board/microsemi-riscv.cfg

Now go back to the SmartHLS terminal and run gdb to execute the code on the MiV_RV32.

$> riscv64-unknown-elf-gdb ./hls_output/simple_add.elf -x ./gdb.txt

At this point you should see the word PASS in the UART terminal. You can type Ctrl+C and then press q to terminate the gdb session.

Also, you can press Ctrl+C on the OpenOCD terminal to close the program, otherwise it would not release the JTAG cable.